Day 4

Ok…so I get that eventually I won’t count the days…but right now..it’s Day 4.

Jet lag is still in full effect. Tears on and off. At least for 4 of the 5 Piepel’s. I’m really looking forward to a more even keel….and a good night’s sleep.

Today! Oh, today. The morning was spent taking showers! Crazy, right?? That was our big event of the morning. That and trying to find the trash room and the washing machines! Oh my..that is a story in and of itself. Complete with “Oh crap!” and some seriously racing hearts. Oh Germany…

So the basement looks like something out of movie about a haunted insane asylum. I don’t actually watch those movies..but you get the picture. No joke. I opened the door to the basement and my heart dropped. Low ceiling…flickering lights…locked door. Like..padlocked doors. And something that looked eerily like a…never mind. Maybe a freezer? Agh. And of course you had to go through one door that I PRAYED didn’t lock behind me to get to the next. Finally found the trash room…dropped the trash and got the heck outta dodge.

I couldn’t do it justice with words..so I just took a field trip down there.. Check it out. My first try at an iMovie. I’m hoping it looks as scary as it felt!

That wasn’t everything from today. We had a tour guide, Mattias, show us a little of the city. The girls were not so impressed, but it was good to see it from a local’s point of view. It was hard to get pictures from the back seat of the car, but you get the idea. We then went to a bakery for croissants, pretzels, and coffee – (I even ordered a water in German! Score one for me!).

Mattias spent a while going over what he referred to as the “German Bible”. Don’t get excited..it wasn’t a cool original manuscript or anything. Just the most important things we need to know for living here.

Good times. So THIS is pretty cool. Check it out..

Mattias gave it to us. When you are parking in an area that has..say..2 hour parking…you are supposed to log the time you park on this card and put it in your windshield. I have it set to 10:00. I would have until 12:00 to park there. If it is after 12:00, you can get a parking ticket. Brilliant! And what stops people from fudging it a little you may ask? (Because I asked..) The fact that they are German and, as a rule, are a generally honest society. How cool is that. Especially since it must work here!

Made it home by about 4:00 and played one wicked, cut-throat game of Uno. It lasted forever…

I might as well round out our day with a story about our walk to dinner. Littlest has been begging for burgers, so, thanks to a suggestion from Mattias, we found one about a 10 minute walk from our apartment. A little place called Hans im Glück: Burgergrill and Bar. Burgergrill for them: Bar for us. Everyone is happy. It was super cool. Lots of Aspen trees throughout the restaurant.

They have also been dying for real lemonade. Everything here called lemonade is actually Sprite. They found “real” lemonade. Not sure there was actual sugar in it. One of the three loved it! Obviously not littlest.

Super fun to have found such good food. We haven’t had a bad meal yet! They are also getting good at ordering “still” water – as opposed to “sparkling” 😉